The Münsterplatz in Basel has had religious significance since before the time of Christ; in the first century BC, there was a Celtic temple on the site of the cathedral, then in 15 BC, the Romans rolled into town and placed a fort at the site - almost certainly with its own temple. Late in the Roman period, the locals converted to Christianity, so the logical place to put a church was on the site of the existing temple.

The earliest decernable traces of a cathedral date from the one that was destroyed by an Hungarian invasion in 917 AD - it is not known at what time this was built or what it was constructed from. Although it is assumed that a temporary wooden church was built, it was not until early in the 11th century that Emperor Henry II endowed Basel with the funds to build a new Cathedral, which remained in place until the last quarter of the 12th century when it was replace by a late Romanesque Cathedral.

In 1356 a massive earthquake severely damaged the cathedral, and it was decided to renovate the existing münster in the, now fashionable, Gothic style. Built out of red sandstone,with twin towers and multi-coloured roof tiles, Basel Minster dominates the city.

The 74 misericords date from the renovation when it was conversion to the Gothic style. However, there have almost certainly been some replacemnt misericords over the years - you can see the scaring on the wood in some instances. The misericords also exhibit an extreme variation in styles and subject matter.

As of July 2009, Basel Münster does not appear to have an official website.

RSS feed for Automated updates of the regular upgrades to misericords.co.uk